Farymann Diesel Starting Issue

[japarker11]

T27,
Sailorchic has most of it. The A30 started life as an air cooled diesel. To marinize it, Briggs and Stratton put a fiberglass jug, sometimes aluminum, around the finned cylinder sealing it to block and head with O-rings. A Johnson pump runs seawater through the cavity.

The o-ring seals almost always leak, usually right onto to the starting motor solenoid. Our Cal was an insurance recovery when the previous owner left without turning off the fuel feed. The leaking seawater shorted the poles very similar to sailchics screwdriver. The starter engaged, the engine idled, with starter engaged for weeks. Finally, with raw water seacock closed, the exhaust hose finally melted and suffocated the engine. The starter was destroyed along with the ring gear. After rebuild, we have had it for fourteen years without a repeat. Even after the "factory rebuild" the O-rings leak. After each use, I fog the engine, especially the solenoid with WD40.
My guess is you have a little corrosion in the solenoid cylinder that binds the action until it cools.

Your access is probably similar to the Cals, poor. I think you can get to the solenoid, remove the two casing screws and open it enough to get some WD into the case.

They are great engines, even if the admiral doesn't like the noise and vibration of single cylinder!!

Good Luck,
John -Former Farymann Owner

[T27Sailor]

All,

Thank you for all of your suggestions. It has taken a while, but it seems that I have finally figured the issue out. Hopefully this helps someone else problem solve their issues.

What was done:

The marine mechanic replaced the ground wires and put brand new connections on all of the wires between the starter and the key switch/button. The starter motor was removed and rebuilt. Finally, a new alternator was installed with an internal regulator and the wiring was redone from the alternator to the batteries and electrical system.

Despite, all of this, I still had the starting issue after running the boat for a period of time, until I had an engineer on the boat.

What we figured out, was that if we let the engine idle for about 10 minutes after running under load, she fires up fine after shutting down.

I tested this on two 10 hour/55 nautical mile trips up and down the Long Island Sound and both times the engine fired right up after we let her idle for 10 minutes. It appears that she needs to cool down.